A Failed Experiment, A Cemented Relationship
Freymiller Inc. of Oklahoma City, Okla., is a 100% refrigerated, family-owned truckload fleet that runs 48 states.
"We specialize in time- and temperature-sensitive product," said company President David Freymiller.
Freymiller has GeoLogic's MobileMax dual-mode mobile communications system installed in all of its 200 trucks and has been working with GeoLogic (and its predecessors) for about four years. Freymiller said MobileMax enables timely communication with drivers.
"Mobile communications has helped us tremendously as far as tracking equipment. We're able to get better utilization out of our equipment. Our dispatchers can track and say, 'Yes, I can see where he is. I don't have to talk to him. He or she is going to make their delivery on time, so I can book another load.' That all comes down to utilization - utilizing your equipment," Freymiller said.
The system also works well in breakdown situations.
"One truck is broke down. Check the map. Find out who's closest, what kind of load they're under. 'Can I repower that load and get it going because it's a whole lot more important or sensitive than the one that they're pulling?'
"If a tractor has a 'check engine' light come on, we get a message sent to us telling us, 'Hey, it's low coolant.' So a driver calls us, we can say, 'Here's your problem. Its low on coolant.' We know what the fault codes are at the same time they know. We get immediate updates so we can track fuel economy. We compare our miles per gallon to our card provider to make sure there's no discrepancy.
"We have and we let our drivers use e-mail capability. So our drivers can send and receive e-mail through GeoLogic," Freymiller said.
Also, GeoLogic's GPS data supplied to Freymiller's McLeod enterprise software enables customers to track their loads on a password-protected web site.
But GeoLogic isn't the only mobile communication provider offering those features.
"What we like about GeoLogic is they let us think out of the box," Freymiller said.
In at least one instance, out of the box meant moving the MobileMax antenna domes from on top of the tractor to the roof of the trailer.
"We put the dome - the brain of the unit - on our trailers. We powered it up because we're all refrigerated. We had powered trailers. So we knew where every one of our trailers was. (GeoLogic) came up with a special umbilical cord that hooked between the tractor and the trailer. So the driver hooked up the air lines, the electrical lines and they'd also plug in this line.
"Now their keyboard comes to life and it's just like the dome is mounted on the tractor. It gave us trailer tracking and communications with the drivers all in one instead of two different systems.
"It made sense. I keep my trailers for five years. I don't keep my tractors that long. Plus, I have owner-operators. If an owner-operator leaves, with that dome, that's quite a bit of money. If he leaves with a $300 keyboard, that's not as bad.
"So that's the way we went and they (GeoLogic) were able to say, 'You know what? Let's try that. We've never done it before, but we think it will be okay.' "
It was a good try, but "it didn't really work that well," Freymiller said.
"We were the only ones in the country doing it and that cord between the tractor and trailer - the special harness - getting it supplied to us was a problem."
Nevertheless, Freymiller said he was pleased that GeoLogic was willing to work with his company on the experiment, and equally glad the company helped when the experiment was over.
"(GeoLogic) stepped up and helped us take them off our trailers so we could put them on our tractors. It was hard. I'm sure it was a heartache and a headache to them. But they let us think out of the box. Sometimes in trucking, if you donāt think out of the box, you just not going to get there."
Of course, since Freymiller's experiment with MobileMax, GeoLogic has launched its own TrailerMax trailer tracking system.
